Abstract

Ball-rolling dung beetles shape a portion of dung into a ball and roll it away from the dung pile for later burial and consumption. These beetles perform dances (rotations and pauses) atop their dung balls in order to choose an initial rolling direction and to correct their rolling direction (reorient). Previous mathematical modeling showed that dung beetles can use reorientation to move away from the dung pile more efficiently. In this work, we study whether reorientation can help beetles avoid competition (i.e., avoid having their dung balls captured), and if so, under what circumstances? This is investigated by implementing a model with two different type of beetles, a roller with a dung ball and a searcher which seeks to capture that dung ball. We show that reorientation can help rollers avoid searchers in a wide range of conditions, but that there are some circumstances in which rolling without reorienting can be a beetle’s optimal strategy. We also show that rollers can minimize the probability that their dung ball is captured without making precise measurements of the time interval between dances or the angular deviation for dances.

Highlights

  • IntroductionMany dung beetles shape a portion of dung at a dung pile into a ball and roll it away, for burial and University of California, Los Angeles 520 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095

  • For dung beetles, dung is a highly prized resource

  • Previous mathematical modeling showed that dung beetles can use reorientation to move away from the dung pile more efficiently

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Summary

Introduction

Many dung beetles shape a portion of dung at a dung pile into a ball and roll it away, for burial and University of California, Los Angeles 520 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095. Later consumption [1, 2] Competition for dung balls at or near the dung pile is very common. Fights over a dung ball can occur between dung beetle species or within the same species [9]. A roller’s task is to move away from the dung pile as efficiently as possible [1, 5]. Beetles are facing backwards while pushing dung balls larger than themselves, imperfections in the dung ball can make balls drift off course, and beetles need to roll their balls around obstacles and over uneven ground [1, 10]

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